Minnesota Twins' Trevor Plouffe (24), Oswaldo Arcia (31) and Brian Dozier (2) celebrate after Plouffe and Joe Mauer scored on single by Jordan Schafer during the 10th inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014, in Kansas City, Mo. The Twins won 11-5. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Minnesota's Jordan Schafer hollers after he and Eduardo Nunez, left, scored on a double by Brian Dozier during the Twins' six-run rally in the 10th inning to beat the Royals, 11-5, on Thursday, August 28, 2014, in Kansas City, Mo.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — You might say Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost gift-wrapped this one for the Twins on their way out of town.

Instead of subjecting them to dominant reliever Wade Davis in the 10th inning, Yost used soft-tossing veteran Bruce Chen and let the Twins bash him around for an 11-5 victory on Thursday night at Kauffman Stadium.

Davis, mind you, had worked the past two nights but had thrown a total of just 24 pitches in doing so. Before that, the right-hander hadn’t worked since last Friday.

Last time Davis gave up an earned run? That would be June 25.

Since then, he has reeled off 25 straight scoreless outings, fanning 33 in 24 2/3 innings along the way, thanks to a 96-mph fastball and a vicious curveball.

“That guy is nasty,” Twins shortstop Eduardo Nunez said. “You never want to face him. This was an opportunity for us, and we had to take advantage of it.”

Davis has worked three straight days just once this season — July 22-24 against division opponents Chicago and Cleveland — and Yost was determined to give his setup horse a night off, even if it cost him a game.

Nunez broke the dam with a go-ahead single off Chen in the 10th. That scored Oswaldo Arcia, who got things started with a one-out triple.

Asked what he hit, Nunez laughed.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “Everything was so slow. First pitch he threw me was 83 (mph). I think it was a cutter. Next pitch was 81. I just had to remind myself to stay back and wait.”

Jordan Schafer then completed a three-hit night with a two-run double that gave him four runs batted in, matching his career RBI high from 2012 with Houston.

Brian Dozier and Kurt Suzuki added run-scoring hits as the Twins avoided matching their longest losing streak of the season at five games. They had two five-game skids in June.

Wrapping up the season series, the Twins finished 8-11 against the Royals after dropping 15 of 19 against them last year. This was just the fifth road win in 18 tries for the Twins against the Royals the past two seasons.

“We played three games here — we could have won all three, and we could have lost all three,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “This was no different than the first two. We hung in there, made some big pitches late and finally had the big inning.”

The Twins had failed to hold leads in the sixth inning or later in three of their previous four games. They took a 4-3 lead into the sixth against Detroit’s Justin Verlander in Saturday’s nightcap, then wasted 1-0 leads in the ninth and eighth innings, respectively, the past two nights against the Royals.

It nearly happened again in this one.

Twins left-hander Tommy Milone disappointed in his third straight start after a solid debut at Houston.

Handed leads of 2-0 in the first and 4-2 in the fourth, Milone gave back both of them. He nearly proved overly generous a third time after Schafer put the Twins back in front with a run-scoring double in the sixth.

Lorenzo Cain opened the bottom of the inning with a sharp single to left, but Ryan Pressly came on to get two big outs.

Lead preservation has been an issue for Milone of late. Last time out, he turned a 6-1 lead into a 6-5 nailbiter, failing to last the fifth on a night when the Twins eventually bashed their way to a 20-6 win over the Detroit Tigers.

Over his past three starts, Milone has posted a 10.64 earned-run average. In 11 innings, he has given up 13 earned runs, 23 hits and four walks while striking out just four.

Before the game Gardenhire was asked about Milone’s slow start after doing quality work for Oakland the past couple of years.

“This guy can pitch,” Gardenhire said. “We just haven’t seen it yet.”

The Twins are still waiting for a vintage Milone outing.

Former Twins slugger Josh Willingham went 0 for 4 with a walk on the night and was hitless in seven at-bats (with three strikeouts) in the series. He blistered Twins pitching just 10 days ago at Target Field, hitting .429 with five RBIs.

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